1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates, generally, to a bending brake, and, more particularly, to a bending brake apparatus having a coil holder for holding coiled aluminum or coiled vinyl sheet material, built-in means for cutting the aluminum or vinyl sheet material, an attached worktable, and pairs of detachable brake support legs.
2. Background Art
Bending brakes are utilized in numerous industries, especially in the aluminum siding industry, to bend workpieces of substantially flat sheet material (eg. aluminum), in situ, through a wide range of angles. A bending brake is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,351,176 by the present inventor. Such bending brake is now also being used to bend vinyl material that, like aluminum, is formed into coils to promote transportability.
While coils of aluminum or vinyl material are easy to transport, they are awkward to work with, in conjunction with a standard bending brake, at a job site. Typically, more than one job station is needed for processing coiled material. Before placing a sheet of coiled aluminum or coiled vinyl stock into a standard bending brake located at a job site, one must cut off a portion of the sheet by hand using a utility knife or shears, place such portion on a separate work table, and then measure it and mark it for subsequent bending and/or cutting. This aggravating, time-consuming, and generally unwieldy process, colloquially known in the art as "rolling in the mud," has often been blamed for workproduct damage characterized by uneven (less than perpendicular) cuts, scratches, "scalloped" edges, burrs, and dents. The process also poses the threat of serious bodily injury to those who use utility knives or shears with unsteady hands.
Separate hand-held cutting tools employing offset roller cutters have been suggested as replacements for utility knives or shears for use in conjunction with bending brakes (eg. the PRO CUT-OFF manufactured by Tapco International Corporation of Plymouth, Mich.). Such separate cutting tools, however, are subject to certain disadvantages and/or operating difficulties. For example, it is difficult to accurately guide such a cutting tool during the cutting operation. This can result in uneven cuts. It is also difficult to generate workproduct free from other irregularities, such as the above-mentioned scalloped edges, scratches, and burrs, when using a separate cutting tool. Moreover, the roller cutters themselves tend to break easily--especially when the separate cutting tools are dropped. This happens quite frequently since workers tend to forget to remove the separate cutting tools from conventional bending brakes prior to bending material in such brakes thereby allowing the motion of the brakes during bending to knock the cutting tools to the ground.
Properly aligning material measured and marked for cutting in a typical bending brake is also difficult to accomplish. One must take additional measurements along the entire length of the material to be cut to predict where the roller cutters of a conventional cutting tool will slit such material. Usually, the material will shift during this process forcing one to recheck the alignment thereof. Because of this, more than one person is often needed to manually guide the material into the brake and hold it there to ensure that it does not shift before it is clamped into place prior to cutting.
Typical bending brakes also have pairs of support legs that are bolted or otherwise fixed thereon and usually foldable thereunder. Such fixed leg pairs tend to seriously impede the process of loading/unloading the brakes onto/from the roof racks of pickup trucks used to transport the brakes from job site to job site. Moreover, the fixed leg pairs prevent the brakes from being used directly on scaffolds forcing workers to pass aluminum or vinyl material down from the scaffolds every time they need to cut, bend, or otherwise manipulate such material.
There is a pressing need, therefore, for an apparatus that will allow coiled sheets of aluminum or vinyl material to be easily, safely, and accurately cut, bent, and/or otherwise manipulated, in situ, by a readily transportable bending brake apparatus, to generate workproduct free of irregularities.